Delawareans can congratulate themselves for paying exceptional attention to an off-year election.

More than 52.6 percent of registered Delaware voters went to the polls, judging by the top-of-the-ticket totals of 357,592 votes cast in the Senate race. That’s much higher than the percentages in the 30s of past off-year elections.

Before Delawareans can gloat, however, what about the almost equal number who didn’t exercise their most important American privilege and duty to vote? Why did 333,000 or so registered Delawareans stay home?

They didn’t like the rain? Were they too busy planning their Black Friday or Cyber Monday shopping lists? Did they not like the candidates or the local or national issues?

As a naturalized American, I wouldn’t think for one second of not exercising the privilege that citizenship gave me.

Nationally, the percentages are worse. Only 47 percent of eligible voters cast ballots, according to estimates from the United States Election Project. Sure, that’s the highest percentage in 52 years and sure, more than 110 million voted for their congressman.

But again, we must ask what about those who stayed at home or had to work. That last possibility is why it is so important to make Election Day a federal holiday, preferably a Sunday, so fewer businesses would suffer from a loss of staff. The Constitution gives Congress the power to set Election Day.

It should become an 11th federal holiday (do you know what the other 10 are?) but maybe we could eliminate or combine one of the present ones that mean less today than when they were created. It’s an issue that has bothered me for many years as I read that bills to accomplish that have failed in Congress, which seems to fear such patriotism and practicality.

Another need is federal standards for federal elections, which would then also become a basis for state, county, municipal, etc. elections. That means eliminating some roadblocks that states have created toward getting people registered and allowed to vote.

Delaware sets a good example, automatically registering voters when new residents get their driver’s licenses, as several members of my family just found out.

Delaware Election Commissioner Elaine Manlove says that logical procedure was instituted when Jennifer Cohan, now the Transportation Secretary, was in charge of the Division of Motor Vehicles. Manlove says an estimated 3,000 new license holders who don’t register as voters get reminders from election departments in the hope they’ll become not just Delaware drivers but also voters.

The Delaware system of voters having to prove their identity at the polls has been in effect for many years with very few problems, and I think the objections to that in other states are not well-founded.

I’m not sure Delaware legislators are ready for the tremendous outpouring of early voters and absentee ballots that occurred this November and might also increase our turnout. I have some problems with those procedures because every potential voter should hear debates, listen to commercials, read about issues and consider the candidate’s character up to the last minute before casting a ballot.

Delaware’s new voting machines might need some getting used to. The new machines that have already arrived will first be put into operation at May’s school board elections and at local elections before the 2020 presidential vote.

This process involves having your voting machine selections imprinted from an electronic screen onto a paper ballot, which you can check before you actually vote. Delaware will thus no longer be one of a handful of states that had no paper trail to verify what the machines recorded.